good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of wednesday the 15th of december welcome from all parts of the world and bring your own prayers and concerns as we always say to join our worship this morning we've come to a particular part of the garden but let's think first of danger areas of the world uh areas of fire and flood and and storm and heat in australia but let's think too of human danger in cities and we think of those trapped uh we don't know how many some newspapers are saying hundreds trapped in the fire at the hong kong trade center and how frightening that must be we're told that they're being rescued but it must be a very frightening experience indeed as they wait many on the roof for rescue to come we have come to a particular part of the garden but let's let's begin our prayers first and then we'll we'll see where we are oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies openly for us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen so we've come to sit in this place where we sat in december last year on the 15th of december when we were looking at different trees and yesterday we were with the spa mania which was flowering in the herbaceous border today we've come to the native wild cherry tree and here it stands with its many trunks it's now got leaves hanging on it but they've got no colour in them now and will fall very soon but to see all its trunks and branches shows you a woodland tree which is decorated with wonderful flowering at different times of year and as we sit here among the various leaves deep leaves which have fallen most of the leaves have now come down there are few leaves still with color hanging on the sycamore trees behind me and the mulberry trees behind me but not many they've come down deep now uh bit my feet were walking through them to get here there's a sound of walking through drying leaves and rotting leaves as they rot back into the ground having trapped all the carbon when they were on their trees and then putting it back into the earth doing our planet good as we know that trees do and our protection of the trees and our planting of the trees is a really holy duty to keep our planet uh healthy and strong so our psalm this morning psalm 77 the one of the psalms for the 15th morning of the month i cry aloud to god i cry aloud to god and he will hear me in the day of my trouble i have sought the lord by night my hand is stretched out and does not tire my soul refuses comfort i think upon god and i groan i ponder my spirit faints you will not let my eyelids close i am so troubled that i cannot speak i consider the days of old i remember the years long past i commune with my heart in the night my spirit searches for understanding will the lord cast us off forever will he no more show us his favor has his loving mercy clean gone forever has his promise come to an end forevermore has god forgotten to be gracious has he shut up his compassion in displeasure and i said my grief is this that the right hand of the most high has lost its so i will remember the works of the lord and call to mind your wonders of old time i will meditate on all your works and ponder your mighty deeds your way o god is holy who is so great a god is our god you are the god who worked wonders and declared your power among the peoples with a mighty arm you redeemed your people the children of jacob and joseph the waters saw you o god the waters saw you and were afraid the depths also were troubled the clouds poured out water the skies thundered your arrows flashed on every side the voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind your lightnings lit up the ground the earth trembled and shook your way was in the sea and your paths in the great waters but your footsteps were not known you led your people like sheep by the hand of moses and aaron it's a psalm of a troubled night and we all have them when sleep seems to depart and it's then that all kinds of worries tend to infect the human mind and at the same time the psalmist then begins to think differently and says i will give this matter complete perspective not only in a global context but in the context of my whole human journey and verse 11 changes the mood i will remember the works of the lord and call to mind your wonders of old time i will give the situation which i'm pondering and which is really driving sleep from me i'll put it in perspective and then in my prayers and in my heart searchings that perspective may give a completely different picture that's the tone of this psalm 77 on this 15th morning and it's a good tone because we're going now to the epistle to the hebrews which we've been reading and i'm starting chapter 11 which is a great catalogue of those in the past who have had faith and whom we ourselves have read about and studied in weeks gone by when we were looking at the books of the old covenant in genesis and in exodus and now this writer a compelling writer with all the sacramental imagery that we've been looking at now goes on a different kind of journey which the psalmist would approve giving perspective to the concept of faith but first there's a definition and then on we go and i'm going to read chapter 11 and uh go up as far as let's see where we think we'll go to verse 22 starting at the beginning with the definition that he gives of faith now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen for by it the people of old receive their commendation by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of god so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible by faith abel offered to god a more acceptable sacrifice than cain through which he was commended as righteous god commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith though he died he still speaks by faith enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because god had taken him now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased god and without faith it is impossible to please god for whoever would draw near to god must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him by faith noah being warned by god concerning events yes as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith by faith abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with isaac and jacob as with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god by faith sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore these all died in faith not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out they would have had opportunity to return to it but as it is they desire a better country that is a heavenly one therefore god is not ashamed to be called their god for he has prepared for them a city by faith abraham when he was tested offered up isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through isaac shall your offspring be named he considered that god was able even to raise him from the dead from which figuratively speaking he did receive him back by faith isaac invoked future blessings on jacob and esau by faith jacob when dying blessed each one of his sons and bless the sons of joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff by faith joseph at the end of his life made mention of the exodus of the israelites and gave directions concerning his bones it's a wonderful passage and we're only halfway through it we shall continue to tomorrow but first of all the definition of faith as the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen and yet so strong a spiritual conviction that people with hope and with intention set out on physical journeys and achieved physical activities by that faith and the writer lists those of the old covenant who began that journey and when we get to abraham where the promise is given and abraham sets out on a physical journey to the promised land which was given him in promise but would have to be effected in journeys of those who came after when we come to abraham we come to those verses which look forward not only to an earthly city but to an eternal 1 2 4 10 tells us he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god and as the uh temple the tabernacle the tent carried by the children of israel was carried and pitched in the wilderness and even the temple itself in all its splendor and glory built by someone and solomon and restored after the babylonian exile were only copies and shadows of the heavenly thing so every intention to build a human community in city form as it grows and grows however big the city is only a copy and shadow of the eternal city of the promised community of the kingdom of heaven which is there he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god which is almost the last vision of the last book of our new covenant writings in the revelation to john the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god but there's more than that in verse 13 we have the verse of those who died in faith not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar the hope that they would be but entering into that eternal dimension before any of that was accomplished here in the earthly finite dimension and it's the end of verse 13 and having acknowledged that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth i'm using the word pilgrims as the king james version use the word pilgrims for that translation this translation i'm holding uses the word exiles those who are not in their true homeland but in copies and shadows of practices and things and all hope and faith in this life take the things that they know to be eternal and as strangers and pilgrims as they travel use those signs to give them hope and faith and the qualities of the kingdom of heaven even here and now so you can translate that word as you will but strangers and exiles strangers and pilgrims and you get the same kind of of verse in the letter the first of the letters to of saint peter but here it is in the letter to the hebrews strangers and pilgrims journeying in heart and mind but also achieving the qualities of the kingdom of heaven even now here in human life by faith the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen they are as we've grown used to realizing marvelous images of the kingdom of heaven and of what is divine and images that we use in sacramental terms in our worship and this writer to the hebrew community who are thinking of slipping back and looking backward to the land which they've left and losing their sight of the land to which they are going the eternal city all of those images make them what the psalmist quite often calls wayfarers said before that chapter in the wind in the willows wayfarers all well it speaks of all of us whose heart and mind is looking towards the eternity of the eternal city but trying to effect the qualities and characteristics of that city here in human community so let's think of uh just two things this morning uh in terms of dates in time gone by the first one is the death of a man called isaac walton in december 1683 december the 15th this date in 1683 and he died and was buried in winchester cathedral for reasons are mentioned later but he wasn't born there he was born in staffordshire and then went in early years 1593 he was born he went to live and trade in london and isaac wharton was a linen draper and had a shop just two doors from chancery lane where his house was from 1627 to 1644 and his shop there in fleet street but he was in the parish of saint dunstan and when he went there uh he became verger and church warden in his spare time of the parish churches in dunstan and the vicar of st dunstan at that time was a man called john dunn who later became dean of saint paul's and is known to us as a magnificent poet and preacher too but we use his words so often in worship and we think of john dunn in that passage of um his sermon which talks about the qualities of the kingdom of heaven where there will be no noise nor silence but one equal music no ends or beginnings one equal eternity that's done and he had the poetic sensitivity of those of the early 17th century remember it's the age of shakespeare it's the age of the writing of the king james or the translation rather of the king james bible in 1611 with its magnificent language it's the age of so many of those writers and walton loved them walton was a devout servant of the king and also a devout member of the church of england born in the elizabethan age but dying much much later in 1683 and uh that was uh the age after the restoration of the king jinjaz ii and then king james ii he died before the glorious revolution as it's called of 1688 but let's just look at walton and see his faithfulness for in 1644 the battle of marston moore really ended hope for the royalist and shall we say anglican the episcopal cause there was more to come and it would be five years before king charles the first was executed but walton really had had moved himself back mostly to his house which he still had on a piece of rural land in staffordshire it was at shallowford now the minute i say that name shadowford i think of shallowford house which is just walking distance from walton's cottage walton's cottage itself has now become a place of pilgrimage where people go to remember isaac walton because walton was a writer and his book the complete angler is not so much i mean it is a a a what should we say a treatise a a meditation on the quietness of fishing beside a river but at the same time uh it's a reflection on how one gets quiet and spiritual time when you can quarry inside yourself and see what is happening and walton really must must have been wondering as he went back to chathor exactly what the intentions of the lord god were for this kingdom at that time when all that he believed in had been defeated and was being broken up and he went back to shatter well now let me say why shalifed is important to me and then you'll begin to register it uh shallower house which was the big house there was turned into the litchfield diocesan retreat house and the grounds around it very beautiful it still is the retreat house but i found myself there on one wednesday thursday friday saturday of 1972 and then on the sunday morning left shallowford with those who had been with me there after a silent retreat and on the 1972 exercise i had been there before being ordained deacon on the sunday morning we went from shadowfed all the way to litchfield cathedral on that sunday morning march during the retreat itself the days of june 28th 29th 30th july the 1st were beautiful and suddenly after all the preparation of uh getting ready for ordination from the first time when in another kind of retreat but not a silent retreat at allsford house near to winchester uh i had begun that journey and that was some years before when i was accepted as someone who might pursue the journey towards ordination then shannonford house suddenly and you can imagine the disruption of leaving community life and the life of the seminary at constant and then uh going to a house in shrewsbury and thinking this is where i shall now live as a curator here and then suddenly on that wednesday evening we went for a rehearsal at litchfield and then went off to shatterford and silence dropped and there were retreat addresses and there was worship through the day but we were in strict silence that's how it was and it was a beautiful time a really beautiful time of wandering around the garden no disturbance whatsoever and right at the end of the garden there was a sort of style and a a gate and beyond was a footpath and beyond that the old railway which i think probably isn't there anymore but in those days a steam train would from time to time puff up there and going up there with a mug of the plentiful tea that they were always huge um metal pots of tea there in the hall of shallow food house swim and we could take that and go into the garden and think and read and then come to terms with what journey as strangers and pilgrims we were about to venture on before our ordination as deacons and some were there who were deacons already and were going to be ordained priests on that sunday morning and we could think and it was a blessed time i kept a journey because a journal rather because i couldn't speak to anyone else and so i wrote how i was feeling and thought of things past like the psalmist and gave all that i was doing perspective and uh then almost felt like the railway children as the train puffed by on that gate at the end of the garden and that the hedges opening up but um at that time i didn't know that just walking distance away was the cottage of uh isaac walton who in the depths of defeat in the civil war began to write and he wrote the lie not only the complete angler in which a fisherman uh and a as a hunter and someone who is a falconer begin to speak together about their country pursuits but the fisherman in walton's mind himself a fisherman um and by rod and line on the river not a fly fisherman and and uh we're remembering this morning that lovely advertisement which used to be on television of j r hartley uh telephony it was a yellow pages advertisement do you remember of the old man uh and his daughter saying well just try father he phones the and the from the yellow pages and says uh that he's looking for uh a a book by j.r hartley on fly fishing and then in the in the end after the the the uh the telephone call that the answer comes back yes we do have that book in his face it's full of pleasure and then they say say what is your name and he says j r hartley he's looking for a copy of his own book and that advertisement went on for years and years and then was reproduced again because it became almost iconic as an advertisement for the yellow pages but walton was not a fly fisherman he was actually a rotten lion fisherman and a very devout man who kept up the criminal activity of worshipping with his book of common prayer which had become a prescribed book after the defeat of the king but at the same time he did much more in the cause of the one whom he believed should be king and he lived to see was king charles ii but after the battle of worcester when prince charles was defeated he was now already by everyone who believed in that cause called king charles ii uh when he was defeated they came into walton's possession to keep safe while one of the crown jewels called the little george and a great risk to his life that uh little george was conveyed by walton in the end right across through messengers to charles himself who was in exile in the netherlands and that jewel served as a promise that things might in the future be different but meanwhile walton wrote the life of sir henry woodson and richard hooker and george herbert and john dunn and then he wrote his book on fishing as well but he was looking at people all of whom had died before the civil war really broke out and we could we could add to that george herbert's best friend nicholas ferrer who printed george herbert's poetry as we saw when we were looking at little giddy not too long ago and all those had kept a spirituality of the church of england as it was the the anglican episcopal spirituality in which they believed they had kept that and sir henry wooten who became an ambassador was the great grand nephew or sorry he was the grand nephew of my predecessor the first dean after the reformation dean nicholas wharton who who established the rhythm of this place well so henry wooden became an ambassador just as nicholas wooden had been for the king and there's a wonderful sentence of uh sir henry witton's about ambassadors he said an ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country and there's another of those words in english spells in exactly the same way that can be taken in two ways lying abroad can mean uh being economical with the truth or else having to spend your life abroad as a representative an exile from your country because you're speaking from your country there so remember sir henry wooten but it meant especially remember george herbert because of his wonderful hymns and poetry which pharah had printed when herbert died all these who died thinking that they were defeated and that the cause was at an end and at that point walton kept the flame burning and after the civil war was over one of his great friends became the bishop of winchester i'm talking of george morley and he invited walton whose uh second wife died his first wife had died early his second wife died in 1662 but walton was going to live until 1683 and was was invited by george morley to come and live in the bishops palace at winchester forget any modern palaces the bishop of winchester in those days lived at farnam castle a magnificent building with the old keep behind it and all the buildings that george morley had restored in front as the bishop of winchester's house and uh walton went to live there bit like isaac watts going to live as a guest of the the family and uh he went there and he himself died two years before his friend who was the bishop and was buried in winchester cathedral and is buried at winchester cathedral we remember him and give thanks for his writing but also we remember the way in which spiritually he was he was envisioning the holy city but for him it was a vision of the countryside like me at chaleford house in the garden reflecting on all things now i would say that i find reflection much better in the countryside and like living in the countryside surrounded by the countryside i enjoy the city when we go there but the countryside is the place my sister was absolutely topsy-turvy from that she disliked the countryside really it didn't have enough buzz for her she loved the city she loved the city of london and she became massively a londoner until her health broke and then she she came here eventually but but uh she was a london person and in going to her uh then one enjoyed her flat and another flat that we have used of another very dear friend who has died recently and her flat was in barron's court and one thing sen let me think today also this is the other date in 1906 the piccadilly line was opened and that line is an arterial route through london almost diagonally right down through goes all the way to heathrow airport so that when you come into england you can get on the london line of piccadilly line and come into london it's a fairly slow journey but you can do that by going stop by stop by stop and you come through and so many of those names that the piccadilly line goes through speak of the quality of the city of london which isaac walton had worked in before that and the way in which a city builds itself up so that you come through barron's court earl's court and then up to hyde park corner and then green park and then you're at piccadilly circus and then on you go and nowadays if we catch the train into london then the piccadilly line will take you from king's cross pancreas station down through arterial routes but also when i say those names of the covenant garden uh and and pancras kings cross station all those things images of a city come into mind but all these are earthly attempts to make communities and the vision that faith gives is actually the sense that the quality of the eternal city can also be conveyed to the quality of community life whether in the countryside or in the city and images of both have been used john dunn was very much at genus in paul's right in the middle of the city and preaching those wonderful sermons which speak of that one equal music but also look forward to the eternal dimension bring us our lord god is our last to me awakening and into the very house and gate of heaven uh and and uh no no no darkness uh or or or shadowing one equal light no no dazzling brightness no utter darkness but one equal light one equal music noise or silent he spoke about that from a city ministry whether it was when he was the vicar of the church that that walton went to us in dunstan's from walton's shop in chancery lane or whether he was simple cathedral on the other hand walton loved the countryside and the city and so really where we choose to live in community is neither here nor there the qualities of the kingdom of heaven can be taken there by faith and by hope and all of that is given perspective when we look back to the faith and roots of the past which the epistle writer to the hebrews actually does in this chapter we'll continue that tomorrow let's see for this morning say our prayers and what we are thinking today is of the diocese of ikeduro in the church of nigeria the awarie province and i omitted yesterday to say prayers for the communion so i'll pray for the diocese of ikara the church of nigeria kaduna province said two areas of the church of nigeria and we're still in our thinking in the canterbury deanery and as i say as i admitted yesterday we're looking at clergy with permission to officiate that's those who perhaps have retired or are doing other jobs but have been ordained and can give their help and there's a very very long list of them so they will know who they are we're praying for all those with permission to officiate within the boundaries of the area of the canterbury deanery nothing to do with the deanery here outside the walls of here around and in or into the countryside is well beyond so give thanks for them pray for justin our archbishop and uh for rose bishop of dover and emma bishop at lambeth and we use first of all the prayer for this week of advent and then the advent collect itself so here's this prayer for this third week of advent o lord jesus christ who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just that it's your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight for you are alive and reign with the father in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and the advent collect itself which we're beginning to know now almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to us in great humility that on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so let's say each in our own language and in our own way the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of reflection now as we say our own prayers so so christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your past and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always are men the leaves may have gone from the trees but the birds certainly sing well at this time of year going to matins this morning the thrushes were singing but here in the garden it's the lovely voice of the robin that we had yesterday and the robin's skipping around and more easily seen but almost dancing between the twigs and branches of the trees you